1. In 457, Leo I was crowned Eastern Roman Emperor, the first to be crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

2. In 1074, in the Battle of Montesarchio, Pandulf IV, Prince of Benevento, was killed while fighting the encroaching Normans in southern Italy.

3. In 1238, after an eight-day siege, Mongolian forces led by General Batu captured and burned the important Russian city of Vladimir.

4. In 1301, Edward of Caernarfon (later Edward II) became the first English Prince of Wales.

5. In 1522, by the Treaty of Brussels, the Habsburgs split into Spanish and Austrian branches.

6. In 1550, Giovanni Maria del Monte was elected Pope Julius III.

7. In 1569, King Philip II formed the Inquisition in South America.

8. In 1613, Michael Romanov (aged 16) became Tsar of Russia.

9. In 1639, the Académie Française began work on the Dictionary of the French Language.

10. In 1653, Nicolas Fouquet was appointed France's Superintendent of Finances.

11. In 1668, Dutch Prince William III danced in the premiere of "Ballet of Peace".

12. In 1783, the Great Siege of Gibraltar, launched by France and Spain against the British colony during the American War of Independence, was lifted after 3 years and 7 months.

13. In 1792, Austria and Prussia signed an anti-French covenant, and Domenico Cimarosa's opera "Il matrimonio segreto" premiered in Vienna.

14. In 1795, the 11th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, affirming the power of the states, and Dutch Prince William V accepted the British occupation of the Dutch Indies.

15. In 1812, an 8.2 earthquake shook New Madrid, Missouri, and poet Lord Byron (6th Baron Byron) made his maiden speech in the House of Lords.

16. In 1817, Baltimore became the first American city lit by gas street lamps, with the first one turned on at Market and Lemon Streets (currently Baltimore and Holliday Streets).

17. In 1818, the first successful US educational magazine "Academician" began in New York City.

18. In 1827, the ballet "Deserter" was introduced to the US at the Bowery Theater in New York City.

19. In 1831, Belgium adopted its constitution.

20. In 1836, "Sketches by Boz" (essays) by Charles Dickens were published.

21. In 1839, Henry Clay declared in the Senate, "I had rather be right than president."

22. In 1842, in the Battle of Debre Tabor, Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, defeated warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.

23. In 1845, the Portland Vase, thought to date to the 1st century BC, was shattered into more than 80 pieces by a drunken visitor to the British Museum.

24. In 1856, the colonial Tasmanian parliament passed the world's first piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.

25. In 1857, French writer Gustave Flaubert was acquitted on a charge of obscenity for his work "Madame Bovary".

26. In 1862, the federal fleet attacked Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

27. In 1863, HMS Orpheus sank off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.

28. In 1864, federal troops occupied Jacksonville, Florida.

29. In 1872, Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College opened.

30. In 1876, US President Grant's private secretary Orville was acquitted in the Whiskey Ring.

31. In 1877, the first Guernsey Cattle Club was organized in New York City.

32. In 1881, in the Battle at In Gogo, Transvaal, the Boers beat superior British forces.

33. In 1882, the last bare-knuckle champion John L. Sullivan knocked out Paddy Ryan in Mississippi.

34. In 1883, Lt.-Colonel Borgnis-Desbordes founded Fort Bamako, Niger.

35. In 1884, the Canadian Rugby Football Union was formed.

36. In 1889, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific held its first meeting in San Francisco.

37. In 1893, Vanderbilt University claimed to have participated in the first organized intercollegiate basketball game at the Nashville YMCA gymnasium, with Vanderbilt beating the YMCA 9-3.

38. In 1894, the Cripple Creek miners' strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, began in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

39. In 1900, British troops vacated Vaal Krantz, Natal.

40. In 1903, VVV'03 soccer club was established in the Dutch southeastern city of Venlo.

41. In 1904, Baltimore caught fire, with 1,500 buildings destroyed in 80 blocks.

42. In 1905, the Dominican Republic signed a treaty turning over customs collection to the US.

43. In 1907, a conservative coalition took over the Reichstag in Germany after rallying conservatives against the threat of a socialist government, and the Mud March, the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), took place.

44. In 1908, Philadelphia A's manager/owner Connie Mack sold future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell to the St. Louis Browns for $5,000.

45. In 1910, Edmond Rostand's play "Chantecler" premiered in Paris.

46. In 1912, the 2nd Dutch 11 City Skate took place, with Coen de Koenig winning in 11:40.

47. In 1914, Charlie Chaplin debuted the silent film character "The Tramp" in "Kid Auto Races at Venice", and the steel work on the Exposition (Civic) Auditorium in San Francisco was completed.

48. In 1915, the first wireless message sent from a moving train to a station was received, and in the Second Battle of Masurian Lakes, German armies surrounded a Russian army.

49. In 1920, Russian Imperial Navy Admiral Kolchak, leader of the anti-communist "White Movement", was executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in Irkutsk, Russian SFSR.

50. In 1922, John Willard's "The Cat and the Canary" premiered in New York City.